The truth about radiators

The truth about radiators
We have some terrible news.
There is no such thing as an eco radiator.

The job of a radiator is to replace the heat that escapes from your space. You naturally lose heat through the fabric of the walls, the windows, the roof and so on and no matter which type of heating system you choose to install, from anyone on our planet, the aim is to replace that lost heat and maintain a comfortable temperature. Easily and efficiently.

If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, insulate your home and stop the heat from escaping unnecessarily.

But don’t despair, whilst no heating appliance can change the amount of heat that your building naturally loses, there are things that we can do when designing a radiator to make it more ‘green’. This is where Eskimo’s designers and engineers come in. Technical reliability and intelligence.

Firstly, controllability.

In order to reduce inefficiency you need a heating system that understands that you are in control. Heating up straight away when you need it and cooling down the instant you don’t. Common sense (and a bit of basic maths) dictates that if you can program your heating to come on only when you are occupying the space then you can make significant energy and cost savings over leaving it on all the time. In order to do this effectively you need a heating system that achieves its full temperature within a few minutes and gives up that heat equally quickly when you no longer require it. Gone are the days of booking an appointment with your heating hours in advance of when you’ll be there – with Eskimo you just turn up and turn on.

So we design all of our products to have as low a thermal mass as possible, which means low water volume in our water radiators. And using aluminium as the heat emitter in all of our models whether water or electric, a metal that has the low density that we need to achieve these results.

In the UK, with our wonderfully changeable climate, controllability is even more important. When there is a sudden burst of sunshine into your room, the last thing you need is to have big heavy radiators or indeed a whole heated floor that take an age to cool down, prompting you to open windows to get rid of that heat that you and the planet are paying for. You want to enjoy that rare moment of natural heat and your heating system to know its place.

Secondly, the materials we choose.

Aluminium is the third most abundant element on Earth. We aren’t running out of it any time soon. Importantly, it can be recycled over and over again and again without loosing any of the physical properties.

Timbers that we use are all FSC certified and Eskimo are conscious of quality and sustainability being hand in hand. Eskimo – love making heat. But we also love trees.

As the only UK manufacturer of posh radiators we give you the opportunity to source locally, just like we do with every single one of our suppliers. 93% of our suppliers being based within a 30 mile radius of our factory in Birmingham.

Birmingham – the land of the long white cloud

Well alright then, that’s actually New Zealand. Birmingham doesn’t have a snappy strapline but we think it should. So here we are: Birmingham, the city that grew up making things.

A place that barely existed before 1750, Birmingham was the World’s first industrial city. Unlike other early industrial cities Birmingham’s growth was propelled by a highly skilled work force, rewarded as such and the masters of specialization, flexibility and above all innovation. That remains the case today and why Birmingham is such a great place for our manufacturing family.

So, as that sage old frog Kermit said, “it’s not easy being ‘green’”, but with Eskimo, at least you’re in the desired area of the colour spectrum.

The truth about radiators
We have some wonderful news.
The over used term ‘innovators’ is alive, and kicking the World of ugly, dysfunctional radiators’ butts.

Virtually every part of an Eskimo radiator is made at our factory in Birmingham. We try to make everything in-house, the only time we don’t is on those odd occasions where we find other British craftspeople that are better at what they do than we could be. I know. Imagine. Here are just some of our innovators that have introduced new methods and ideas to beautifully traditional skills:

ANDY ELTON [portrait]

Andy is just one of the clever bods at Capisco, well he’s the boss too, but he’s the guy that is passionate about patination. Capisco’s expertise in the hand craft that is applying patinas to metals wowd us. It’s literally what he and his team do, all day every day. They absolutely love it. So as you can imagine they are bound to be the leaders in this skilled craft. It’s what they are amazing at and when someone knows their craft that well, you can trust them to create exactly what the vision is. Stunning metal finishes in our Gong range, patinated brass and copper radiators.

KEN ARMSTRONG [portrait]

Ken is another passionate professional. He has the enthusiasm and experience that just connected with us. And he’s a lovely bloke. Ken is our natural surface expert and supplies our wood and stone veneers. Wood is a beautiful and natural surface that instills a sense of warmth and peace with us humans. But because it’s a natural material you have to treat it with respect and understand exactly how it reacts and maintains. Ken and his team at Hillside, work closely with our experts to ensure that wood and heat, in various environments, has longevity and at the same time reveals the stunning craft of working with wood. Woody, our natural wood veneer range of radiators.

Ken is also the clever person who helped us to realize Cliff, our natural stone veneer range of radiators. Using amazingly thin slithers of stone has meant the creation of an absolutely beautiful, yet not heavy, stone radiator design.

MICK WILLIAMS [portrait]

So as you can see, the men and women that we work with, brimming with passion, experience and craft make us very happy. We never take them for granted and we are proud to shout about such British skills. This brings us to Mick. He’s our Yoda to the building world and his astounding attention to detail, patience, wise calm and vision is just a little bit scary. In a very good way. Because this has meant that everything that Eskimo constructs is simply beautiful and well put together. When construction is taking place, we all know how important trust is. We are so lucky to work with Mick because we can trust that whether it’s a monolithic innovative exhibition/showroom cube to present our radiators at 100% Design, whereby thinking outside the box means that the box outsides need to think and move unlike a box. Or consulting on hanging systems for Eskimo Surfaces, it’s not only going to look stunning but it’s going to stay up, safely and for good.

STEVE DALY & ANTHONY BRITT [portrait]

The ‘Ant & Dec’ of Eskimo, Steve and Ant are our Production Managers. We’ve worked closely with them for over a decade and they ensure that our well designed products are manufactured with precision at our Birmingham factory. Steve, Ant and the team at ABL Components are just a little bit nerdy about all things aluminium. But that’s exactly what you need when working with Eskimo designers and engineers because we are nerdy too. Like our other team members, they have been doing this for a long time, we have the photos of fresh faced Steve and Ant to prove it. Their understanding of our radiators and, importantly, our customers, allows us to be even more efficient and to continue to innovate because we are all on the same page. Whether you receive a Leggy Ron radiator, wall mounted Ron, any of our clean lined Outline range, water or electric, you know that it’s been made, assembled and quality checked and then packaged with love before it arrived at its new home.

MARK KEIHAN [portrait]

Mark is our ‘magpie’ loving everything shiny. He’s the bloke that supplies our stunning Supermirror, Brassy, Outline Brushed stainless steel panels. There are no cutting corners with Mark, his corners are perfectly finished in-fact to ensure that the clean lines of our Outline radiator range are second to none. Again, Mark’s been doing this for a long time now simply because he’s very very good at this and is another passionate craftsperson putting his whole self into his work. So much so that he’s gone and named this skilled company after himself, Keihan. Not that imaginative Mark, you just get back to your metalwork eh?

DEREK LANGOUSTINE [portrait]

Derek has long been a ‘face of Eskimo’ and what a friendly, handsome, helpful face it is. Deliveries can be annoying in the UK, that’s a fact. We are all busy people and we understand how important it is that you know exactly what day the goods are arriving and preferably being confirmed either a morning or afternoon slot. And if something happens or you can’t be there, that you can talk to us and we can try to work it out for you. This is what’s different about Derek. We can’t tell you just how many beautiful pieces of feedback we’ve had from customers about Derek. He always goes above and beyond and is more than just delivering. He notices things and he listens. However, Derek is just one man and one man alone. So we are now combining Derek’s personal service with a courier company that can allow us to be a little more flexible with the days that we can deliver. If you’re one of the lucky customers that have Derek deliver your radiators, give him a nice smile and a thank you because, apart from his love for pot holing [actual passion to be placed here], that’s all he really needs to brighten his day.

So together, we’ve gone and got it right haven’t we. So what about the other lot. Well we recognise that good radiators, like a beautiful kitchen, can add genuine value to your property. Which is why whenever we are designing a new product we always ask ourselves what will the next owner feel about the radiators they’ve inherited. This gives us that long term perspective that we need to make our designs timeless.